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Telangana allows 5 yr fee for 4.5 yr MBBS

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court found fault with the state government for permitting private medical colleges to collect tuition fee from students against five years, though the Medical Council of India Regulations on Graduate Medical Education, 1997 puts the period of study at four-and-a-half years. A division bench comprising Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao and Justice K. Lakshman observed that the action of the government in accepting the recommendation of the Telangana Admissions and Fee Regulatory Commission (TAFRC) in this regard was arbitrary and illegal.

The principal secretary, medical, had issued GO No. 120 in 2017 enabling collection of the annual tuition fee prescribed for five academic years. This was challenged before the High Court in 2018 by the petitioner.

After it went through the rules and proceedings, the bench stated that it was most unfortunate on part of the TAFRC, whose duty it is to protect the interests of students and to ensure that they are not overcharged by the private unaided professional institutions. It called the decision to allow the collection of fees for an extra half-a-year as “baffling.”

Spurning the government contention that the colleges have to conduct extra classes for failed students and those who were short of attendance, the bench said that it appeared that the government harboured the assumption that all students who get admission to the MBBS course were likely to fail and would require an additional six months of study. Such presumption was without any basis, the bench said.